


Chapter 44: The Trouble With Tribbles

by eafay70



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Episode: s02e13 The Trouble With Tribbles, Gen, Memoirs, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25118272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70
Summary: In this excerpt from her memoirs, Nyota Uhura recalls the circumstances under which she first encountered a certain infamous species.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9
Collections: Unconventional Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Chapter 44: The Trouble With Tribbles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/gifts).



> Dear LittleRaven,  
> Thank you for giving me a reason to write this amazing character for the first time! =D I hope you enjoy this!
> 
> Information about tribbles comes from Memory Alpha, which cites among its sources the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual, a non-canon work that began as a fan publication, then saw two official releases. I've never read it, but I'm treating it as canon for purposes of this work.
> 
> I also used Memory Alpha for details regarding the order of events in the episode, since I haven't seen it terribly recently.

**Chapter 44: The Trouble With Tribbles**

While that's a rather catchy title, and jokes along those lines were repeated often on the _Enterprise_ in the months that followed, I can't help thinking it's a little unfair to those adorable tribbles! It's not their fault they reproduce so rapidly. And, if you ask me, we never would have exposed a Federation aide as a Klingon without them!

It all started with a mission to Deep Space Station K-7, a Federation post just one parsec away from a Klingon outpost. As we approached, the bridge received a Code One alert from K-7, leading to a red alert and approach at maximum warp.

When we reached K-7 and didn't see them under attack, Captain Kirk was decidedly unhappy. After all, given that our mission involved the disputed Sherman's Planet, an actual battle was perfectly believable! But it turned out to be nothing more than the extreme worry of the Federation undersecretary and aide in charge of the development project on the planet. Since the Klingons had their own development project on the planet, and control of the planet was to be given to whichever project was deemed more efficient, there was concern of sabotage. However, I must be absolutely clear: K-7 was not under attack, which meant the Code One alert was inappropriate.

Back to the story! The crew of the _Enterprise_ was granted shore leave, and it was there that I first encountered a tribble. I was immediately fascinated by this small, furry, seemingly harmless creature, so it made perfect sense to bring it aboard ship. The tribble was quite the attraction in the recreation room, especially when its trilling noises soothed the nerves of us humans. It took very little time for my tribble to produce a litter; I admit I didn't think about just how little time it took at first!

However, when my colleague Dr. Leonard McCoy took one of the newborns to study more closely, he found himself had a new litter in sickbay far sooner than any of us could have imagined. Dr. McCoy determined that each individual tribble had elements of both biological sexes, which explained why only one was needed to produce a litter. He also found that 50% of a tribble's metabolism went to reproduction, which explained the speed of the litters! At one point, he claimed that they were "born pregnant," but I wonder if that was an exaggeration provoked by how very quickly they overtook the ship, including the bridge and food synthesizers.

While there's never a good time to have tribbles on a spaceship, that day seemed like a particularly bad one for their presence. Before the first litter was born, a Klingon battle cruiser came within 100 kilometers of K-7, which prompted a second red alert - until Captain Kirk learned that its captain and first officer were already on K-7 seeking shore leave for their crew. The treaty in effect at the time allowed them there, so Captain Kirk reluctantly permitted it. Tensions were high, especially since the tribbles and Klingons were quite loud in their mutual hostility, and an insult of the _Enterprise_ set off a brawl, which led to the cancellation of shore leave. (While I of course don't condone violence, especially when both groups are simply trying to enjoy shore leave, I must admit that I agree with the sentiment of defending the honor of one's spaceship in the face of such an insult.)

It was not long after that cancellation that I was told to call for the detention of the man selling the tribbles. We were also tasked with getting the tribbles off of the ship (technically Captain Kirk specified the bridge at first, but this was soon expanded to the entire ship); as you might imagine, this was quite difficult, in part because they accessed the ventilation ducts with great ease. My colleague Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott wound up beaming all of the tribbles to the Klingon ship's engine room; we weren't certain that Captain Kirk would approve, but he seemed fine with it after the fact. If memory serves, Chief Engineer Scott's explanation to Captain Kirk was the first time the "tribble"/"trouble" pun was used on the ship, specifically by describing the Klingon engine room as a place where the little creatures would "be no tribble at all."

Some time later, I was able to read more about tribbles. I learned that tribbles and Klingons dislike each other because they both have keen senses of smell and consider each other's odor quite unpleasant. In fact, tribbles use their keen sense of smell to find food! (For more information on this and other topics, I recommend the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual, which is among the works listed in the appendix of this memoir.) It was this olfactory conflict - or, more precisely, the resultant shrieking of the tribbles - that prompted Dr. McCoy to check the Federation aide provoking the response with a medical tricorder and reveal that he was a Klingon! Apparently he had contaminated the Federation grain supply with a virus that stopped those who ate the grain from absorbing nutrients, causing them to starve to death. My heart breaks for the poor tribbles who lost their lives after gorging in the storage area!

In any case, the aide was arrested and the Klingons were ordered to leave Federation territory. The man who had been selling the tribbles was allowed to choose between 20 years on a rehabilitation colony for the transportation of a harmful species or spending 17.9 years (per the calculations of my colleague First Officer Spock) picking up all of the tribbles on K-7. He took the second option, which doesn't surprise me, though I'm not certain he completed the task fully. I simply hope he learned his lesson about taking tribbles away from their natural habitat!

You might be wondering at this point if I regret bringing that first tribble aboard ship. It's an interesting question with a simple answer: No. While I do feel bad that so much chaos was caused on the _Enterprise_ , I don't see how the Klingon sabotage would have been discovered if the tribbles hadn't reacted so angrily to the disguised aide. Furthermore, the fact that the tribbles in the storage area died was an important indicator that something was very wrong with the supposedly well-engineered grain. Perhaps I should have asked more questions about the tribble before taking it, but I doubt the salesman would have answered me truthfully. I suppose the lesson I've learned is that even the most innocent-looking of creatures can have surprising traits, such as faster reproduction than rabbits!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback is always greatly appreciated, especially if there are any details I've gotten wrong.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Chapter 44: The Trouble with Tribbles](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27661118) by [eafay70](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70)




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